Job 42:12- Role of Trials and Adversity

“No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the children of God … and it is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire and which will make us more like our Father and Mother in heaven. …" (Orson F. Whitney, as cited in Kimball, Faith Precedes the Miracle, p. 98.)

Esther 4:14 “For such a time as this” President James E. Faust:

“These are challenging times. I believe your spirits may have been reserved for these latter days; that you, like Esther, have come to earth “for such a time as this.” It may be that your most significant, everlasting achievements will be your righteous influence on others, that your divine feminine inner beauty and intuition will find expression in your quiet strength, gentleness, dignity, charm, graciousness, creativity, sensitivity, radiance, and spirituality. Enhance these sublime feminine gifts. They will make you appealing and even irresistible as you serve others as the handmaidens of God” ("The Virtues of the Righteous Daughters of God, Ensign, May 2003, 111).

Esther 4:14 Reserved 6000 years, President Ezra Taft Benson:

“For nearly six thousand years, God has held you in reserve to make your appearance before the second coming of the Lord.  Every previous gospel dispensation has drifted into apostasy, but ours will not...While our generation will be comparable in wickedness to the days of Noah, there is a major difference this time.  It is that God has saved for the final inning some of his strongest children who will help bear off the kingdom triumphantly.  And that is where you come in, for you are the generation that must be prepared to meet your God.  All through the ages the prophets have looked down the corridors of time to our day.  Billions of the deceased and those yet to be born have their eyes upon us.  Make no mistake about it-you are a marked generation.  There has never been more expected of the faithful in such a short period of time as there is for us” ("In His Steps," BYU speeches of the Year, 1979 [Provo, Utah: BYU Press, 1980], p.59).   

1 Kings 19:11-12. Elder Holland. The Lord speaks to us in a voice still and small.

Elder Holland:

“Please know that your Father in Heaven loves you and so does His only Begotten Son. When They speak to you - and They will – it will not be in the wind, nor in the earthquake, nor in the fire, but it will be with a voice still and small, a voice tender and kind” (The Tongue of Angeles, Ensign May 2007, 18)

1 Kings 19:11-12 President Packer. The spirit is so gentle, we may not feel it if we are preoccupied.

President Packer:

“The Spirit does not get our attention by shouting or shaking us with a heavy hand. Rather it whispers. It caresses so gently that if we are preoccupied we many not feel it at all…. “Occasionally it will press just firmly enough for us to pay heed. But most of the time, if we do not heed the gentle feeling, the spirit will withdraw and wait until we come seeking and listening” (“The Candle of the Lord” Ensign, Jan 1983, 53) 

1 Kings 18:21 You are free to choose to follow the Lord or not.

1 Kings 18:21

“You are responsible for the choices you make. God is mindful of you and will help you make good choices, even if your family and friends use their agency in ways that are not right. Have the moral courage to stand firm in obeying God’s will, even if you have to stand alone. As you do this, you set an example for others to follow.

“While you are free to choose your course of action, you are not free to choose the consequences. Whether for good or bad, consequences follow as a natural result of the choices you make” (For the Strength of Youth [booklet, 2011], 2).

1 Kings 6:12-13. Do nothing which would keep you from entering the temple.

1 Kings 6:12-13. Do nothing which would keep you from entering the temple.

President Monson:

“Those who understand the eternal blessings which come from the temple know that no sacrifice is too great, no price too heavy, no struggle too difficult in order to receive those blessings. . . . Now my young friends, who are in your teenage years, always have the temple in your sights. Do nothing which would keep you from entering its doors, and partaking of the sacred and eternal blessings there.

“Your sacrifice may be bringing your life into compliance with what is required to receive a recommend, perhaps by forsaking long-held habits which disqualify you” (“The Holy Temple—a Beacon to the World,” Ensign, May 2011, 92–93).